MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Two years shy of four decades of service to Manchester and the wider community, Lyn’s Funeral Home is an established third-generation family business.

It was started in 1974 in Coleyville, North-East Manchester by Calvin and Sylvia Lyn. Now, their only child Juliet Lyn-Chuck and her son Dayne Chuck have taken their places alongside their elders carrying out the daily functions.

Prior to the funeral home, Lyn says he and his wife were in sales and the bar and grocery business; it was his wife’s love of horror movies which propelled them to make the transition and start what is today a household name in Manchester and central Jamaica.

“She used to love Dracula horror shows,” Lyn said of his wife. “One evening she wanted me to watch a horror show and I was trying to get out of it so I said, in jest, we should start a funeral home so you can have your own duppies.”

Influenced by his wife’s medical background (she had previously aborted a career in nursing), the idea was explored. A feasibility study was done and the dream was made reality.

Sylvia Lyn later studied mortuary science. Her daughter and grandson followed her footsteps and are now trained morticians.

From a “state-of-the-art” two-storey structure located on Ridgemount Crescent in Mandeville, clients have the benefit of knowledge-based service which Lyn believes lends the business credibility and has ensured its longevity.

“Right now there are no laws governing the funeral industry. We are trained and qualified, but a lot of others may just work at hospital morgues then say they can dress bodies. When they are not trained they don’t know what to do,” he said.

The “life-like presentation of the (bodies) for viewing” is also a feature which the family patriarch believes sets Lyn’s apart.

“People will say ‘look Mr Lyn, mama is smiling’,” he said, adding that the relatives of departed loved ones appreciate the opportunity to view their bodies and make suggestions to improve presentation for burial.

The bodies are thoroughly embalmed, he said, and as a result, the funeral home has received permission in the past to ship bodies to the United States of America, England, Barbados and in one instance, to India.

With the acquisition of the Oaklawn Memorial Gardens burial plots just outside of Mandeville 25 years ago, Lyn’s forayed into a “one stop shop” service, which customers have become accustomed to and appreciate.

The Lyn family business investments also include Apple Tree Plaza in Christiana, and Hargreaves Memorial Hospital and a townhouse development called Pearl Cove, both in Mandeville. The businesses, Lyn said, provide employment for about 90 persons on a full-time and part-time basis and also facilitate entrepreneurial opportunities for others.

His own business skills were shaped by his maternal grandmother who was the “principal teacher” in his early life growing up in St Catherine and Christiana. With his father returning to his homeland, China, while he was an infant and his mother’s death when he was four years old, Lyn said his grandmother guided his path to becoming a responsible adult.

Before the age of 17 he was doing bookkeeping in his grandmother’s cook shop where she prepared meals and sold to workers at the Worthy Park Sugar Factory.

“I didn’t have time with friends, but I knew it was a form of learning business,” he said.

Even though he did business courses by correspondence from England while still a teenager, he said that he is mostly “self-taught”.

Despite personal and business success, Lyn says his “humble” upbringing has allowed him and his family to look beyond their space to make an impact in the life of others. Representational politics provided an avenue for this drive to help others in the 1970s, ’80s and early ’90s. Lyn served as parish councillor for the Christiana Division from 1974 to 1981 and from ’86 to ’89. He entered parliament in 1989 as member of Parliament for North East Manchester and served a single term which ended in 1993. He was also Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1991-1993.

His contribution to public service also includes serving as a Justice of the Peace in Manchester for the last 18 years, being Chairman of the Community Counselling and Restorative Justice Centre, acting Custos of Manchester, and having been the first national president from the rural area for the Lay Magistrates Association of Jamaica.

To be a politician you have to love people first of all. If you are not motivated to give sacrificial service, don’t enter,” Lyn told Observer Central.

He emphasised that “even outside of politics you have to help. You may not be able to give (in) every case that comes (but) you help when you can,” he said.

Lyn is also a philanthropist and makes donations to institutions such as children’s homes and youth clubs. This past Heroes’ Day, he was awarded the Order of Distinction, Commander Class for nation building through community service. He is a current vice-chairman of the Manchester High School board and in that capacity, Lyn and his wife were recently honoured by the institution for over 10 years’ contribution in various ways.

The descriptions of motivational/public speaker can also be added to his long list of accomplishments as, through forums such as school career days, he gives presentations on mortuary science. In those talks, he said he generally encourages young people to be ambitious, get a skill, be patriotic, and serve in areas such as the Jamaica Constabulary Force and the Jamaica Defence Force.

“I use common words. (I tell them) don’t follow company, set your goal….let your ambition guide you,” said Lyn.